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Tesco has cheered its highest market share since 2016 after ringing up a rise in sales as it said customers switched to the supermarket over the crucial Christmas shopping season.
The UK’s biggest supermarket chain reported UK and Ireland like-for-like sales, excluding fuel and VAT, up 3.7% over the six weeks to January 4 and record trading in the week before Christmas.
It said sales over its third quarter before the Christmas period lifted 2.8% across the 13 weeks to November 23, with sales up 3.1% in total over the 19 weeks to January 4.
Tesco said it benefited from investments in prices as customers switched to the chain, with recent industry figures from Kantar showing its market share reached a nine-year high of 28.5% in the 12 weeks to December 29.
It said it remained on track with recently upgraded full-year profit guidance for around £2.9 billion in retail underlying earnings.
But the sales growth is lower than the 6% growth it notched up the previous Christmas.
Ken Murphy, chief executive at Tesco, said: “We invested to bring the best value, quality and service to everyone, no matter how or where they shopped with us.
“As a result, we delivered our biggest ever Christmas, with continued market share growth and switching gains.”